Maybe if there had been more growth to their relationship early on, in tandem with revealing their respective circumstances, it may have been easier to get into. I don’t have a problem with tragedy befalling characters, or even sad beginnings of romance novels, but by the 25% mark, Derek and Maya had barely been on page together, and I didn’t feel enough of a pull toward their blossoming romance to keep going.

The part I read was setting up so much backstory for each of these characters, and so much of that backstory was tragic that it was really hard to get past. There is a lot of hard things that the characters are going through, starting out with Maya’s clearly racist boss who forces her to work without pay while Maya is on a leave of absence from work all the way down to Derek’s money issues causing him to consider selling his family business. Unfortunately, I gave up at around 25% in. Definitely recommend if you’re looking for something to breeze through on the beach.Ī Lowcountry Bride is just not a book for me. Overall, Very Sincerely Yours is a lovely, low-stakes, low-angst romance. Easily my favorite parts of the book were the emails between Teddy and Everett, and I could have read tons more of those. There’s also a quirky cast of side characters that pop in and out to give life advice and offer some humor.

I appreciate Teddy’s growth – she certainly grows more than Everett over the course of the book, but it’s still a slow creep of assessing life priorities, and nothing earth-shattering. His conflict is that he’s a workaholic, and Teddy’s is that she isn’t quite sure of what she wants to do with her life. This is essentially a book about a younger, sexier Mr. This is obviously not a negative – sometimes this is what you’re looking for in a book! But not a ton happens in Very Sincerely Yours, and despite the aforementioned third act breakup, Very Sincerely Yours doesn’t have a ton of conflict. It follows romance novel conventions, including the third act break-up, has one of my favorite tropes (hidden identity), and is very sweet. Unfortunately, I don’t have that much more to say about it. Very Sincerely Yours is an adorable book.

A lowcountry bride a novel